She resides,
spasmodically, in Unter den Linden. Her extreme range is about two
hundred yards, so she confines her attentions to front-line trenches.
Her _modus operandi_ is to discharge a large cylindrical bomb into
the air. The bomb, which is about fifteen inches long and some eight
inches in diameter, describes a leisurely parabola, performing
grotesque somersaults on the way, and finally falls with a soft thud
into the trench, or against the parapet. There, after an interval of
ten seconds, Minnie's offspring explodes; and as she contains about
thirty pounds of dynamite, no dug-out or parapet can stand against
her.)
"Did she do much damage?" inquires the Gunner.
"Killed two men and buried another. They were in a dug-out."
The Gunner shakes his head.
"No good taking cover against Minnie," he says. "The only way is to
come out into the open trench, and dodge her."
"So we found," replies Blaikie. "But they pulled our legs badly the
first time. They started off with three 'whizz-bangs'"--a whizz-bang
is a particularly offensive form of shell which bursts two or three
times over, like a Chinese cracker--"so we all took cover and lay
low. The consequence was that Minnie was able to send her little
contribution along unobserved. The filthy thing fell short of the
trench, and exploded just as we were all getting up again. It smashed
up three or four yards of parapet, and scuppered the three poor chaps
I mentioned.
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